In the design and manufacture of ratchet wrenches, it has been common practice in the past to use a main body in the form of a steel forging or an iron casting with a hollow head for carrying the sprocket, pawl, and shifter mechanisms. In addition to being very expensive, such castings make the wrench quite heavy. Furthermore, in the dirty atmosphere to which most wrenches are subjected, abrasive material accumulates in the chamber which holds the mechanism and not only causes wear, but also causes the mechanism to bind. Also, the complexity of such prior art wrenches does renders them not only more expensive, but also more subject to deterioration. These and other difficulties experienced with the prior art devices have been obviated in a novel manner by the present invention.
It is, therefore, an outstanding object of the invention to provide a ratchet wrench whose major components consist of a pair of identical sheet metal stampings.
Another object of this invention is the provision of a ratchet wrench which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture.
A further object of the present invention is the provision of a ratchet wrench whose operating mechanism is self-cleaning.
It is another object of the instant invention to provide a ratchet wrench which is simple in construction, which is inexpensive to manufacture, and which is capable of a long life of useful service with a minimum of maintenance.
A still further object of the invention is the provision of a ratchet wrench having an extremely high strength-to-weight ratio and, specifically, is capable of resisting extremely a large force couple in a plane perpendicular to the axis of torquing.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a ratchet wrench having a small number of parts, having a combination shifter and pawl mechanism, having a self-cleaning shifter mechanism, and being extremely easy to manufacture.
With these and other objects in view, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the invention resides in the combination of parts set forth in the specification and covered by the claims appended hereto.